updated 07:43 am EDT, Fri March 15, 2013

Pulls existing Reader plans for later in the year forward

Social news website Digg is intending to build its own RSS reader and API, following Google's announcement that it is shutting Google Reader down. The company will be moving plans to create its own online RSS feed reader forward, starting to build it now instead of in the second half of this year, and has asked for suggestions for potential features from existing Digg readers.

After the shuttering of Digg last year, social web incubator Betaworks bought the domain, code, data, and traffic for around $725,000. Six weeks later, the team behind News.me revealed an overhauled site that offered a more curated approach. Wanting to do something similar with Google Reader, the company claims in a blog post that it hopes to "identify and rebuild the best of Google Reader's features," including its highly-used API, though it will "advance them to fit the Internet of 2013" in order to compete with Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit.

The announced closing of Google Reader struck a chord with a number of users online, and has seen a number of similar services being swamped by a sudden influx of people trying to find a suitable alternative, such as NewsBlur and Feedly. Other developers have a different take on Google Reader's demise, and are taking the opportunity to leave the market as well, like FeedDemon developer Nick Bradbury.